The Country Could Use an Appointment
Trump attacks mail voting, rewards abuse, walks out on criticism, toys with war, and ignores a world on fire.
Ezra has now had his own run-in with whatever recently made his sister so sick. Luckily, it was much milder for him, and he is already feeling better this morning. Our household may finally be emerging from the small-child illness relay, an event nobody volunteered for but everyone was apparently required to complete.
Today, Mom and I are going to enjoy a beauty appointment together, because sometimes the country is unraveling and your roots still require attention. While we sit beneath flattering lights and briefly allow somebody else to care for us, Donald Trump will be busy destroying the country, one constitutional norm and international relationship at a time. Some of us respond to maintenance needs by making an appointment. The president responds by trying to demolish the building.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to revive an executive order that would create a federal citizenship list and direct the Postal Service to deliver ballots only to people included on it.
A federal judge blocked the order after 23 states and Washington, D.C. argued that presidents don’t possess the unilateral authority to rewrite election rules. An appeals court upheld that decision, but the administration would like the Supreme Court to intervene before the midterms.
The Constitution gives states and Congress authority over elections, but Trump remains convinced that every branch of government is merely an elaborate customer service department established to process his demands.
ICE plans to extend Amentum’s no-bid contract to operate Camp East Montana through September 2027, potentially handing the company another $776 million. Three detainees have died at the facility. Human rights organizations and federal investigators have documented allegations of physical abuse, inadequate medical care, filthy conditions, inedible food, and wasteful spending.
A functioning government might have responded to these findings by closing the facility, investigating the contractor, and protecting the people in its custody. The Trump administration responded with additional funding, because apparently a report describing human suffering can also be mistaken for a glowing performance review if nobody involved has a conscience.
American diplomats walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting while France was speaking, protesting French criticism of the United States’ human rights record. The dispute followed a vote in which the United States joined North Korea, Russia, Nicaragua, and several other authoritarian governments in opposing another term for U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk.
France suggested that America was surrendering its moral authority. American diplomats answered by leaving the room, the international relations equivalent of knocking over the game board because someone read the score aloud.
Walking out didn’t change the vote, improve our human rights record, or restore our credibility. It merely demonstrated that the administration remains deeply committed to avoiding criticism, especially when the criticism is accurate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Trump today for the first time since the United States and Israel launched the war with Iran. Trump says diplomacy has a “good chance” of succeeding, while also threatening renewed airstrikes if it doesn’t. Iran denies requesting negotiations, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted, and the national average price of gasoline has climbed back above $4.
American consumer confidence fell again this month as the war’s costs reached household budgets. This is often the moment Washington discovers that foreign policy has domestic consequences, usually after those consequences arrive at a gas station with a large illuminated sign.
The administration may be unsure whether it wants to end the war, expand it, or simply rename it. Americans are already paying for whichever option it eventually selects.
Meanwhile, the planet continues submitting its complaint in fire, France and Spain are battling enormous wildfires as another heatwave settles over Europe. Thousands have been evacuated, tens of thousands remain displaced, air quality has deteriorated, and burned landscapes may carry the damage for years.
Here in Oregon, the Fox Fire burned nearly 72 square miles, threatened the town of Huntington, and forced the temporary closure of roughly 70 miles of Interstate 84. Firefighters managed to protect the town as flames approached homes, but the blaze remains part of a much larger outbreak across a hot, dry West.
The United Nations climate chief warned that the costs of the climate crisis have reached “national emergency levels,” which sounds serious until one remembers that governments have spent decades responding to national emergencies with oil subsidies and press releases.
Mom and I will spend part of today practicing the civilized principle that things require care. Bodies, relationships, elections, people in government custody, peace, and a habitable planet all deteriorate when neglect becomes policy.
A beauty appointment can’t repair the republic, but it may be useful to remember that neglect is a choice, destruction requires effort, and Donald Trump has made a full-time job of both.
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